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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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A GALAXY 

li OF 

PROGRESSIVE POEMS. 

BV ^ 

John W. Day. 



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BOSTON: 

COLBY & RICH, PUBLISHERS, 

9 BoswoRTH Street. 

1890. 



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Copyright, 1890, 
By JOHN W. DAY. 



Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston. 
PfiEsswoRK by Berwick. & Smith, Boston. 



IBetiicatton. 



To ISAAC B. RICH. EsQ.r 

In Memory of his many years of devotion to the interests of 

Spiritual Literature and Journalism, and in respectful 

appreciation of personal kindnesses received, 

This Volume is dedicated by 
THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

1. Introductory 7 

2. The White Dog Sacrifice 11 

(An Aboriginal Aspiration. ) 

3. Guardian Angels 20 

(Spirit Nearness.) 

4. Jack 23 

(Animals in Spirit Life. ) 

5. Springflower . ; 25 

(Demonstration of the Inner Vision.) 

6. A Woman of Hungary 29 

(Died for Fatherland. ) 

7. The Emigrants 32 

(No Hell !) 

8. To A Sea-Shell 34 

(A Moral from the Deep. ) 

9. " O-Grab-'em ! " 36 

(No Trusts !) 

10. Wine or the Spirit 38 

(Eternal Progress. ) 



/ 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

11. Forest Spring 41 

(A Legend of Cape Ann. ) 

12. OxwARD ! 43 

(Light at Last.) 

13. The Chariot of Fire 45 

(Historical.) 

14. " The Art Preservative " '. 48 

(Technical and Prophetic.) 

15. " When My Ship gets in from Sea ! " 51 

(Fadeless Youth.) 

16. The Millennial Sun .53 

(Spirit the Potential.) 

17. Morning by the Sea 58 

(The Soul's "Other Chance.") 

18. Lady Franklin 60 

(Woman's Devotion.) 

19. AUTOPHONIA 63 

(Patience Conquers.) 

20. Hope 66 

(For All.) 

21. Notes 68 



INTRODUCTION. 



John W. Day was born in Annisquam (a part of 
the city of Gloucester, Mass.), February 17th, 1838. 
His parents were Jossph and Augusta L. Day. His 
mother was the daughter of Eev. Ezra Leonard, 
who in the early days of Universalism became a 
convert to its teachings, bravely renounced his con- 
nection with the Orthodox denomination, and was fol- 
lowed in his change of belief by his whole parish 
(excepting deacons), to whom he lovingly expounded 
for years the " new light " of that day, until 

" Th' eternal simshiiie settled on liis head ! " 

The subject of this sketch received his education 
at the grammar schools of the rugged seaport of his 
nativity, at the High School of Portsmouth, N. H., 
and at Hampton Academy, where he began fitting for 
Harvard College. Circumstances prevented, the con- 
summation of this plan, and he entered the office of 
The Trumpet (Universalist), and latterly that of The 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

Banner of Light (a few months after its establish- 
ment in 1857), as an apprentice to "the art preserva- 
tive." Later on he entertained views of studying for 
the Universalist ministry, and commenced the course ; 
but the state of his sight, which had deterred him 
from the printing. business, also operated with other 
causes to lead him to abandon the thought and enter 
into different fields of out-of-door activity — such as 
two years spent at sea, and five years in the army, 
where he served with success as private in the In- 
fantry, 2d and 1st Lieutenant, and afterward Cap- 
tain of Cavalry. He holds certificates of honorable 
service during 1861-1866 from the States of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Khode Island. 

Eeturning to Boston, he, in May, 1867, again be- 
came connected with The Banner, and has served 
since then as compositor, shorthand reporter, and for 
many years as its Associate Editor, which position 
he now occupies. 

In February, 1880, he was united in marriage with 
Nellie M., daughter of Benjamin and Lydia B. 
King, of Cambridge, Mass. 

Members of the fraternal orders have in Mr. Day 
a worthy brother — he being a highly respected mem- 
ber of the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows, the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and other societies. 



INTRODUCTION. y 

In addition to his record as sailor, soldier, reporter, 
journalist, etc., Mr. Day has gained standing in the 
field of versification — having written many poems 
which have appeared in the columns of The Banner, 
and various other periodicals published in New Eng- 
land, of which the contents of this volume may be 
regarded as a specimen sheaf. 

The subject of this sketch has a retiring and unas- 
suming nature, disposed to let his works bear witness 
to his worth. Since his earliest youth his wish and 
ambition have been to prove true (as faf- as the imper- 
fections inherent in our common humanity allow) in 
all the trying emergencies that have arisen in the 
midst of varying experiences ; and this desire to be 
found doing his whole duty (wheresoever his lot may 
be cast), when the Angel of Change shall draw nigh 
to him, is the stay and religion of his manhood. 



NEW-YEAR'S OFFERING. 



>>©<c 



THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE.i 



EvEKY land and every nation 
Owns "Our Father" sphered in heaven 
Heaven His brain and earth His body, 
We are linked unto Him always. 
His the wondrous scale chromatic 
Shading on from sand to sunbeam, 
Shading past the shallow atoms — 
Bidding science stop and falter — 
To the mystic realm called spirit ; 
Deep'ning thence to hues and forces 
Which the seraph may not fathom ! 

We are of His blood the molecules 
While we wander here in matter. 
Drawn from Him, in spores magnetic, 
At the hody^s primal birth-hour, 
Lo, our souls like sparks emitted 
Quit His eye 'mid thunder flashes 
When the air is big with travail ! 



12 kew-yeak's offering. 

'Mid the rain of fate descending, 
Zig-zag'd through the cloud of sorrow, 
Lo ! we strike the earth — the circuit 
Formed, we join the broad'ning system, 
And to wider range develop. 

Prescient hearts have felt His life-throbs ; 
Prescient ears have caught the music 
Of His voice in hours ecstatic ; 
Prescient eyes have seen the glory 
Of His thronging troo^DS of angels ; 
But the mighty mass of mortals — 
Spirits for a time in prison — 
Hear no music, catch no glory. 
May but gaze from out life's loopholes, 
Speculate on fragments only, 
PoAverless to behold the landscape. 

They who see and dare to utter 
Witness of the sights bestowed them 
Man has martyred through the ages ; 
Seeking on his bed Procrustean 
Every form of truth to measure. 
But the cloudless Sun of Being 
Hath through all the circling eras 
Shed a boundless tidal radiance 
On the castle-roof of error ,• 
And one day its close-tiled armor 
Shall be downward fused in ruin 
And the daylight flood its dungeons. 



THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE. 13 

When the traveler, worn and weary, 
Treads some mighty Andean valley, 
Kound him swoon the airs mephitic, 
Eound him blooms the tropic verdure, 
Eound him lurk the wild carniv^ra, 
Near him trails the slimy serpent ; 
But above him towers the mountain, 
Grand and glorious, zenith-piercing ; 
And as further from the valley 
Mounts the pilgrim's toiling footfall, 
Lo ! the forms of death and carnage 
Fade — the tropic verdure lessens ; 
Snow-clad rock and icy brightness* 
Now replace terrestrial danger ; 
Now the storm-cloud's muttered thunder 
Far below doth speak its story, 
While the thin clear air of heaven 
Seems to beck the spirit onward, 
Forth from matter's crumbling prison 
To a realm of power unending. 

So with us ; we walk earth's valley 
Close beside the soaring mountain 
Of the v/ondrous Avorld of spirit ; 
Here in dread we trace our footsteps. 
Here the chafing stream of sorrow 
Wears the hope and joy of living; 
Here we front the wild carnivWa — 
Passion's hosts and man inhuman — 
Here the slander-serpent twineth, 



14 kew-year's offering. 

Here the air of wrath mephitic, 

Like the fire-damp of the coal-mine, 

Flashes oft in grisly Avarfare. 

But this lower realm inferior 

Is but as the Father's greave plates, 

And the honest soul of Knighthood 

Gleams within the keen-eyed luster 

Streaming from His visor'd helmet. 

Therefore as we grow through progress, 

In the life toward which we hasten. 

Higher mount we o'er His body, 

See His heart beat in the Soul-World, 

But His reason — who may climb it ? 

Still that reason holds ascendance — 
Throned within his brow supernal, 
Tempered by his heart warm loving — 
O'er the shifting forms of matter. 
O'er the humblest shapes and atoms, 
O'er the worlds in highest aether ; 
And th' involuntary functions 
Of the universe wide arching — 
Nature's automatic action^ — 
Coupled are with power and wisdom 
From the Absolute — the Spirit ! 
Man may sweat in rubbish'd workshop, 
But 'tis God who builds the chariot ! 

Therefore 'tis that every nation 
Gains a knowledge of His presence, 



THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE. 15 

Sucli as it may grasp and fathom — 
Only such. The thought and worship 
Of the barbarous state and order 
May be rude, uncouth, repulsive, 
To the child of lands enlighten'd, 
But 'tis fitted to its orbit ; 
And the thrill of true devotion 
Kegnant in th' aspiring bosom 
Is the same though raised to honor 
Chrishna, Jesus, Jove, Manito ! 

Marvel not, then, child of knowledge, 
If I tell in fleeting cadence ^ 

How th' untutor'd savage wanders 
Up to God, through smoke ascending ! 
Up the sky — progression's symbol — 
Steals the white wreath of his offering. 
Seeks Manito, the Good Giver — 
That Great Spirit nomenclatured 
Variously by ev'ry nation — 
Bringing answer from the Father 
(Of all tongues and forms the fountain) 
Fitted to his spirit's uses ! 

Through earth's grim crust a giant's foot had stamped 

a caiion trail ; 
Like white-stol'd angels through the sky the curling 

cirri sail ; 
Like chieftains grand on either hand the dome-brow' d 

hills arise, 



16 new-year's offering. 

And silence down the vaulted blue leans with expec- 
tant eyes. 

he bear rests in his craggy den — the yelping wolf 

is dumb; 
None save the human echo stirs — the slow-voiced 

Indian drum 
That beats a cadence weird and faint, like leaded 

brain-throbs, known 
When fever-toss'd the sick man leans on death with 

quavering moan ! 

The council-fires — the sacred three — flame 'neath 

the Lodge of State ; 
There sits each warrior, crouched beside his red 

brow'd child and mate ; 
^^ Bring forth the dog for sacrifice ! " the chieftain 

speaks the word, 
And lo ! the dusky ranks divide, and anxious sighs 

are heard. 

They lead him down the murm'ring ranks, a whisking, 
fleecy cloud 

Of joyous life, that wraps a germ in matter's confines 
bow'd. 

Bright-eyed, clean-limb'd, and strong to dare his mas- 
ter's cause to win. 

He shines, where looms the grisly priest swathed in 
his bison-skin ! 



THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE. 17 

Come, beat the dram ! and raise the shout ! and wheel 

the victim round ! 
'Tis not the scalp dance now ye join, no deathful 

chant ye sound ; 
Save that ye pour on Western air your tribe's sepul- 

tural song 
As wave before and whites behind, ye linger late and 

long ! 

So rolled the Jewish timbrel-cheer along the roaring sea ! 
From E/Ome's arena, God-like grown, the hymns of 

Galilee ! 
From Scotian glen in echo stern ^^ the Covenant's " 

voice upsprang 
"When Dundee smote the mountain path and hoofs 

careering rang 1 

The song is hushed, the dog is slain. Swift to the 

sacred flame 
The priests and chieftains offerings cast in high 

Manito's name : 
" As mounts this smoke of sacrifice up to the bending 

sky, 
Great Spirit, hear our lonely call, and in our aid draw 

nigh : 

^' Thou fill'st the bison's stately march, Thou nerv'st 

the eagle's wing, 
Thou bend'st the storm-bow's shining arch, and riv'st 

the buds of spring : 



18 new-year's offering. 

Thou glow'st in fire, thou roll'st in flood the mountain 

gorge along, 
Thy sunshine warms the freezing earth, thy life the 

warrior's song ! 

^' Great Spirit, hear our trembling prayer ; we wander 
faint and.few — 

Strangers and exiles from the land our Eastward 
fathers knew. 

Accept our off'ring poor and frail, and may we faith- 
ful be— 

Keep fearless foot on duty's trail, and honest faith 
in thee ! 

" The mighty wave of human life up to thy presence 

rolls ; 
We seek, through gloom and closing night, the brighter 

land of souls. 
Be right th' inspirer of our speech, as fade the moons 

away ; 
Keep us true Indians till we meet our next assembling 

day ! " 

The white dog took the shining trail beyond the 

smoke-fire's glow. 
Up from the earthquake splintered vale that crouched 

the hills below ! 
The sun sat in his wigwam door — where twilight 

shadows lie — 



THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE. 19 

When, reached Manito's fateful shore, he sought His 

presence high ! 
While many a zealot's stilted prayer limped slow 

through darkening skies. 
Our Father marked with welcome rare the Eed Man's 

sacrifice ! 



20 ^EW-YEAR*S OFFERlNa. 



GUARDIAN ANGELS. 



" They <are gone, and here no longer 

Shall their mortal forms appear ; 
Make our faith, oh Father, stronger 

That their spirits still are here. 
Oh when round us night is falling. 

May our souls, in Truth secure, 
Hear their holy voices calling: 

' Come where life and joy endure ! ' " 

The sunset crowns Rome's glittering turrets high, 

And evening shadows creep along the plain ; 
The vesper bell rings out along the sky, 

And choral anthems shake each lordly fane ! 

They sing of her who bore a mother's pain 
To bring the Christ, the promised Saviour, down 

When Syrian shepherds heard th' angelic strain, 
And Chaldean sages stooped his brow to crown 
AVhose manly life-tide flowed 'neath priestcraft's mid- 
night frown ! 

Beyond the broad Campagna's rolling breast, 
'Mid twilight shadows bend a pilgrim band ; 

From many a distant clime their feet have pressed. 
To gain th' " Eternal City's " wished-for strand. 
Among the shattered wrecks, the ruins grand, 



GUARDIAN ANGELS. 21 

That speak the fleeting breath of earthly power, 

They kneel in silent awe, by breezes fanned 
Rich with the perfume of the prayerful hour — 
The vestal virgin's chant borne from the far-off 
tower ! 

And o'er the kneeling group a woman stands — 

A girlish figure, stately and serene — 
She points the travelers on, with eager hands 
Nobly uplifted 'mid the wondrous scene ; 
She points, while written on her holy mien 
Is traced : " Not yet ye rest — your goal is there ! 
Where, on her seven-hilled throne, ''an ancient 
queen, 
Rome sits, and upward from the city's glare, 
St. Peter's mighty dome looms through the twilight 
air." 

We seek a holy shrine, through earth's dark way. 
Through sin's hot sands, and fierce temptation's 
woe ; 
We seek the portals of eternal day. 
And God's evangels cheer our wanderings slow. 
Think ye the cadence of the Jordan's flow 
Can dull their friendly cars, who've gone before ? 
Think ye the voice whose kindling power we 
know 
Is hushed for aye where death's black waters roar, 
And Eden gives no smile back from her golden 
shore ? 



22 new-year's offering. 

No ! as the north-lights in the midnight gleam, 

When frosty stars in chilling silence roll, 
So in the twilight thought, the peaceful dream. 

They come to cheer the sin-beleaguered soul ! 

They bid the beacons blaze, the watch-bells toll 
To mark the invading fiend's delusive powers — 

They tell how Autumn creeps in russet stole 
Through Winter's sorrowing path to Springtide's 
hours. 
And vernal gales that float o'er fair, celestial flowers. 

Oft in our wandering comes a vision bright ; 

We see the heavenly city's gates of gold. 
And all the spirit's power is plumed for flight, 

To reach that land — to clasp the loved of old ! 

'Tis then the guardian speaks : " Not yet ye fold 
Th' immortals in your arms of crumbling clay ; 

Life claims your duty ; dare the winter cold 
Of trembling age — or manhood's blazing day — 
Till God the Father calls along the heavenly way ! " 

When human spirits bow in humble prayer, 

And doff conceit of pharisaic sway, 
Loved friends departed cleave the viewless air, 

To wipe the tear from sorrowing eyes away ! 

They point beyond earth's broad Campagna gray, 
Where towering domes and glittering spires arise — 

Where Aiden's glory sheds a fadeless ray — 
And, fairer than th' Italian sunset dies, 
The smiling " Summer-Land " sits throned among the 
skies ! 



JACK, 23 



JACK. 

[Obit April 20th, 1884.] 

Mid gloomy wold, 'neath gust of April rain ; 

Where seeks the broad'ning Charles the broader main, 

'^eath buttress'd bridge and ship's red-rusted chain, 

With hearts that voice demission's sad refrain, 
We stand beside a broken chalice, fain 
To fill a grave with all that. doth remain.^ 

No Statesman, worn with time's unending jar; 

No Warrior, slain in grisly strife afar ; 

ISTo Prophet, dead beneath his Morning Star ! 

We bring — our dog : whose service-years are told ! 
Take thou these relics to thy kindly fold 
And give them fitting use, oh ! Mother old. 

We bring brisk feet, each duty's willing thrall ; 
Quick ears that sharpen'd at his master's call. 
Bright eyes that danced — oh ! grave, we give thee all! 

No, Jack ; not all ! Shall mutual love divide 
With crumbling, arch on Nature's lower side. 
And leave on man's but figment for his pride ? 

Instinct with Eeason clear, doth closely blend : 
Who shall declare where such doth reach its end 
And miss the hand of Life's Eternal Friend ! 



24 new-year's offering. 

Progression's law each dust-grain aye controls ; 
Its full-orb'd presence through creation rolls — 
And shall it bar these rudimental souls ? 

We will not say "Farewell," with heart-strings tense: 
No link of Being may be stricken thence — 
Its chain is girded round Omnipotence. 

Where Truth is bless'd, where Justice lends its grace 
Along the files of Life's subtending race, 
There such as thou shalt ever find a place. 

Shall Honor fail to meet th' approving eye, 
And faithful Courage sense no welcome nigh 
When earth's weak children find their time to die ? 

Shall not Life's Sponsor mark their journey run — 
Their surcease gained 'neath Time's dissembling sun — 
And to his humblest servant say : " Well done " ? 

Oh ! Spring, o'erchilled with Winter's lingering snows, 

That on far inland mountains find repose — 

Oh ! sun, cloud-visor'd though the daytime grows : 

Oh ! crevic'd mists, like shot-riven flags that fly 
Along the frontlet of a frowning sky — 
No types are ye of Being's destiny ! 

Beyond earth's cloud the sunshine's glory thrills ! 
Beyond deatli's cloud th' Eternal Purpose wills 
All Life shall tread the Amaranthine Hills ! 



SPKINGFLOAYER. 25 



SPRINGFLOWER. 



The artist soul lias caught the golden morning; 

Through Time's dull bars th' unfailing glory 
streams ; 
The living canvas/^ 'neath his bright adorning, 

Gives forth a fair creation seen in dreams, 
When spirits, free from matter's crumbling prison. 

Speed forth enfranchised, hand enclasped in hand, 
Where loved of eld, to life and light arisen. 

Walk shining fields in Eden's goodly land ! 

She comes, the forest's pure and radiant maiden, 

Illumed with rays prophetic, and the powers 
Of golden sunlight ; with a promise laden 

That hints a hidden life which death embowers. 
Down from her rounded shoulder droops the vesture 

Of summer's dee-p fruition — yet to be 
Kather than that which is : each graceful gesture 

Speaks symbol'd harvest, russet crowned and free. 

But not alone in somber, tangled mazes 

Of wilding woods she shines in tender grace. 

And cheers the land which on her presence gazes 
With rich and varied joy ; her tender face 



26 new-yeak's offering. 

Speaks to the eye, where'er the hungry spirit 
Gives open entrance to her pollen store 

Of fruitful "thought, and wakened souls inherit 
A sweet aroma from the further shore. 

Fair index she, that points the fact eternal 

That naught but victor hands of conquered self 
Can pluck life's truest good from pastures vernal ; 

Th' ambitious clutch and gain but sordid pelf, 
While to the pure in heart alone are given 

The precious flowers that gem the shining meads, 
Where, sunrise-like, the jeweled porch of heaven 

Gleams in the dawn that mortal change succeeds ! 

With growing strength and firmer hold on matter, 

Toward broader light her pilgrim footstep strays 
Silent, with stealing steps that lightly scatter 

The dew on untrod paths ; her lithe form sways 
Soft to the quiv'ring breeze. A glorious creature. 

Her radiant face upturned, with cheeks of bloom. 
An uncheck'd glee in every beaming feature. 

That speaks a heart where guile finds never room. 

Her deep, moist, gleaming eye, with powder aesthetic. 

Mashes far-reaching thought for visual ray ; 
Thence speeds the arrow from the bow magnetic 

Unerring — to her victor feet as prey 
The rapturous prize of vernal beauty bringing ! 

Behold bright fields and blossoms cheer "the earth ; 
Trailing arbutus, buttercups are springing — 

Her every impress gives a flow'ret birth. 



SPKINGF LOWER. 27 

Within her shade anemones are shining. 

And on the bank, where winds the slow-paced stream, 
The purple Innocence, at ease reclining. 

Lights up the floral way ; where joys outgleam 
Her spirit onward moves, exuberant glowing 

Amid the flush, the wealth of boundless love. 
Her smile a close-linked sweetness e'er bestowing, 

That speaks to planes below of spheres above. 

Her pictured path is decked with sunrise glory ; 

She spreads a lover's feast before the eye 
Of souls who, crushed by mis'ry's whelming story, 

Faint by the way while hope's bright tide rolls by; 
Her loving soul with all their sorrows blending, 

Slie gives them of her life in flowery forms 
And juices rich and colors far transcending 

The rainbow arch that spans the parted storms ! 

In wooded dell where mirror waves are wending, 

Eeflecting back, amid the blush of earth, 
The blue expanse of heaven above them bending, 

She waiting stands ; her glance in artless mirth 
Expectant turned where sweeps the cleaving arrow 

Up to the clouds ; so in its keen-edged flight 
Swift swirls aloft the homeward-wheeling sparrow 

When fall the shadows of the closing night. 

Soft through her raven locks the winds are playing. 

Upbearing slowly from her parted lips 
Sweet, perfumed utterings, calmly upward straying — 

A meed of joy that knows no dark eclipse. 



28 new-year's offering. 

She speaks : " Behold, I come all richly laden, 
From realms. of light, by subtle force upstayed; 

A simple, natural and untutored maiden, 
Like poising butterfly in forest glade. 

"I bloom in hues the blue, the red, the golden,* 

Far-sighted yellow spring-tide's tender green ; 
Earth warmly greets me ; I am gladly folden 

To Nature's heart, a robed tiara'd queen. 
I never seem — I a7n; all arts dissembling 

My honest soul abhors ; sincere, I shine | 

A messenger to turn the balance trembling 

In human hearts, from w^rong to right divine. 

"Armed with love's bow, and thought-shaft keenly 
flying. 

To shoot the swift-winged truth whereon to live. 
Behold I stand by limner's art, defying 

Decay's dim veil. The circling years shall give 
No darkness to this flower of inspiration, 

This nineteenth ' century tlossom,' ripely blown ; 
But endless cycles peal the glad ovation. 

To hail the Cause I type to every zone." 

Thrice holy Cause, to mourning hearts revealing 

That after life whose Jiojoe had e'en grown dim, 
Oh, let us choose this picture's centered feeling — 

Childlike and huniV)le, Avalk earth's river brim. 
Till, as the morn mists quit the soaring mountains. 

Our souls to higher realms shall gladly fly, 
Where Iris crowns the Paradisean fountains, 

And human love and joyance never die ! 



A WOMAN OF HUNGARY. 29 



A WOMAN OF HUNGARY. 



O'er the broad mooPj white with its wreaths of 
snow — 
Flanked on each side by shadowy forests deep — 
The sun's last rays in softened luster glow, 

Or, halting on the pine-tree summits steep, 
Seem waiting for an hour that soon must come. 

And Nature thrills through all her trembling 
frame — 
For lo ! with scream of fife, and rolling drum, 

And charger's tramp, and cannon's breath of flame, 
Proud Hapsburg's legions march the Magyar land 
to tame ! 

Forth from the forest's darkening ais''es they wheel — 
The Croatian bold, the Tyrol's heart of fire ! 

Up leaps the sunlight from their gleaming steel — 
And trumpets hoarse each warrior soul inspire ! 

Oh fated Hungary — so soon to weep — 

Forth from the further shade thy patriots pour ; 

Thy blood-stained page the circling years shall keep, 
Writ with the sword, mid Hist'ry's magic lore, 
Till slumb'ring Europe wake, and kings shall be no 
more ! 



30 new-year's offering. 

'^ Eljehn el Magyar T' swift the war-cry rolls 
In rending echoes down the leveled line. 

The volleying musket Freedom's tocsin tolls — 
Low, cannon-smitten, sinks the rocking pine ; 

Still Hungary's banner flings (Jefiant scorn — ^ 
Still from her front wear's crimson currents veer, 

Till like a tempest on the Danube born, 

Downward, with bugle-blast and charging cheer, 
Bursts through her death-thinned flank the thun- 
dering Cuirassier ! 

Shout, Austrian legions ! lo, the field is won ! 

Back reels the Maygar to his forest lair ! 
Sheathe the dulled sword, the day's red work is done, 
And shriek and groan swell through the twilight 
air. 
But who art thou that on this fearful spot 

Crimsonest with life's warm tide the shot-ploughed 
snow ? 
Thou art a maiden ^ — nay, deny it not — 
Thine eyes are radiant with that mystic glow 
That speaks a nearer heaven, man's soul doth never 
know ! 

AVhat brought thee to this field of strife and gloom ? 

Frail woman's arm avails not in the fray. 
When o'er the plain the trembling cannon boom. 

And round the reeking lines the war-clouds play ! 
Thou liest in death — not in the homestead hall, 

Where love's soft tears distill in gentle rain — 



A WOMAK OF HUNGARY. 31 

Alone thou liest, where, at fancy's call, 

The fainting foe hears, 'mid his deathful pain. 
The Drave's low murmuring song — the Moldau's 
home-like strain ! 

Oh soul ! thou art a stranger to this land ! 

Didst steer thy bark in ages long ago — 
Like the bold G-enoese — through some ocean grand, 

Where bright star-islands in their beauty glow. 
Seeking some new world's glory for thine own ? 

And wrecked where time's remorseless surges pour^ 
Was't bound by savage hands, a prisoner lone, 

As Afric's sons, on wild Sahara's shore. 

Seize on the storm-tossed wretch who 'scapes th' 
Atlantic's roar ? 

So doth it seem ; for oft against the bars 
Thy pinions to the angel choir keep time, 

And oft as twilight brings the marching stars. 

Thou hear'st the watchword from their ranks sub- 
lime ! 

Oft dost thou see thy duty high unrolled, 
And rising grandly, by thy fetters stayed. 

Thou shak'st earth's prison through its confines old. 
As when the -lightning's quiv'ring flag's displayed, 
And heaven's fierce cohorts pour the storm-king's 
fusillade ! 



32 new-year's offering. 



THE EMIGRANTS. 



" We have here no continuing city or abiding place." 

'Tis the summer's sultry noontide, and the long, dull 
voyage is past ; 

And up through the city highway their line is speed- 
ing fast/ 

As they follow the " Star of Empire," with a flushed 
and anxious mien. 

Where it points to the spreading prairies, and the 
Western slopes of green ! 

There is youth with its fond ambition, and age with 

its weight of care ; 
And the mother hastes, with her children, in the 

" goodly land " to share. 
For the shield of our eagle's pinions, and the hills by 

free winds fanned. 
They have come from the armed dominions of the 

German's "Fatherland." 

That none are left from the column they watch with 

jealous care. 
Lest the stragglers wander blindly, and faint in the 

stranger air. 



THE EMIGRANTS. 33 

Their hearts are bold as the Pilgrims^ who moored in 

okl Plymouth Bay — 
And the scream of the panting engine is .their shout 

as they speed away ! 

Shall we miss one soul from owr column when, up 
from Death's harbor strand, 

With life's weary voyage all ended, ice march through 
the ^' Promised Land " ? 

When out to the hills of Progress we speed on our 
joyous way, 

'Mid the vales and streams that glisten with a never- 
ending day ? , ^ ■ 

Shall one be lured by " the demons," through the by- 
paths of sin and shame, 

To a sulph'rous lake that burnetii with a never-dying 
flame? " ' 

Ah, no ! for the loving angels but smile on these 
earth-born fears. 

And the creedal damps that darkened the light of our 
earlier years ! 

And we hnow, whose souls are lighted with the rays 

that gleam before. 
That our Heavenly Father guideth our bark, though 

the surges roar. 
And grief shall dissolve in glory, and His loving 

smile be seen 
When out from the " Golden City " we march to the 

hills of green ! 



34 new-year's offering. 



TO A SEA-SHELL. 



Thou tell'st of the bright and smiling sea, 
Wliere the ri]3ples laugh in their winsome glee : 
And the smooth beach shines like a silver band 
On a maiden's brow in Orient land ; 
And the white gull rocks on the dreamy swell 
As the wild bird rests in the hazel dell. 

Thou tell'st of the black and windswept sea, 
When the good ship toils from the land to flee, 
And the breakers dash on the groaning shore, 
And the watery plain to its oozy core 
Is stirred by the plowshared hurricane, 
And the boasted strength of man is vain ! 

Thou tell'st of the murmurs, faint and low, 
That sweep where the charnel waters flow 
When the sailor rests — from his wand'rings passed 
And the wave rolls deep o'er the riven mast, 
And the starry hosts on his funeral pall 
Scatter bright gems that are free to all ! 

Oh relic strange of the watery strife. 

Your form once thrilled with a conscious life ; 

A germ in your roseate halls was born 



TO A SEA-SHELL. 35 

So rich with the tints of opening morn ; 

And still through your arcades, weird and dim, 

We catch the sweep of the ocean's hymn. 

But the life-power died in thine inner breast, 
And the waves have cast thee ashore to rest ; 
And the dew and sun and the tramping storms 
Shall knead thy dust into other forms ; 
For the God who thrills in each changing grade. 
Not an atom of earth in vain has made ! 

Thou art witness mute 'gainst the olden tale, 
Of the rending of time's parting veil — ^ 
How the heavens like a scroll shall roll away. 
And the isles shall flee in that fearful day. 
When the mountains burn like a furnace red, 
And the hissing " sea shall give up its dead." 

For the sea doth give to the earth again 
The spoils that sunk 'neath the angry main. 
They come, by the force of law divine, 
In differing forms from the surging brine ; 
But the sailor's risen spirit dwells 
In the land of fadeless asphodels ! 

Oh, mourning hearts by the sea-beat shore. 
There are angel tones in that sullen roar. 
As the waves come up with reverence grand, 
And bow on the rocky altar strand, 
They swear hj the God who reigns on high : 
^^Not a soul on earth was horn to dieJ^ 



NEW-YEARS OFFERING. 



" 0-GRAB- EM I " 



When Madison embargo ^ laid 

On all New England's thriving trade, 

And bade tlie tall ships fretful ride 

At anchor on the restive tide, 

Nor seek on foreign shores the gains 

Which Commerce gives for sailors' pains, 

His mandate rang through all the land — 

And servants stout clinched his command 



" O-grab-'em ! " 

The ruined merchant traced the letters 
In mingled order — called them fetters 
Laid on the nation's writhing arm. 
But quickly burst the hateful charm 
When the roused land, its rights denied. 
Swung out on battle's crimson tide. 
And foemen heard Columbia's shout 
Through thund'rous echoes pealing out : 
" O-grab-'em ! " 

But modern day the measure heaps : 
" Grab " is the game while justice sleeps, 
And patriots frown, and prophets wail 
The rising of destruction's gale ! 



o-gkab-'em." 37 



Is there no power in all the land 
To bid Corruption's deluge stand — 
To heed the toilers' bitter sigh 
As Mammon roars his soulless cry : 
"O-grab-'em!"? 



&^ 



The creeds in golden armor strong 
Peal forth their trumpets loud and long ; 
Their feet with " Gospel " shod no more 
They clang the nineteenth century's floor. 
Their social extradition waits 
In hearse-like robes at " Liberal " gates. 
Shall they, ere long, repeat the cr/ 
That crushed brave souls in days gone by 
" 0-grab-em ! " ? 

No Jest these serio-comic lines ! 
Along th' horizon grimly shines 
A blood-red dawn, whose noon-day sun 
Must see Truth's battle lost or won. 
Awake ! bold hearts, where'er ye be, 
And bid the trusts and zealots flee : 
Till honest thought with freedom blend 
Where'er Columbia's hills ascend 
'' O-grab-'em ! " 



38 new-year's offering. 



THE WINE OF THE SPIRIT. 



Another year hatli trod th' arena's floor 

Where uses stern to Being's call respond ; 
And we with gladness hail the loved once more 

Who bring their message from the Fair Beyond ! 
We mark with joy Progression's prophet shine 

That streams puissant from that primal ray 
When angel fingers from the land divine 

Swept the dark lignite clouds of doubt away/ 

This Cause then born moves on — its conquering 
train 

Brings peace and light and love to all mankind ; 
Round every tribe and race the golden chain 

Of world-wide brotherhood its power shall bind. 
It comes not to destroy, but to fulfill ; — 

Not to supplant, but grandly to illume : 
Lead mourning hearts from Death's penumbra chill, 

And prove a conscious state beyond the tomb. 

We steadfast sow this hour the harvest bright 

Whose fruit shall crown each future age with peace, 

When we here met shall pass from mortal sight 
Where Paradisean skies bring sweet release. 



THE WINE OF THE SPIRIT. 39 

May He whose presence thrills in worm and sun 
Guide all our steps to duty's furrow true, 

Till, matter's surcease gained, soul-freedom won, 
Life's chosen friendships we again renew. 

They tell of one who roam'd by castled Ehine 

'Mid the rich gloaming of the vesper hour. 
When o'er the hills the parting sunbeams shine. 

And purpling dells are dight with mystic power : 
And who, by elfin led,^ a grotto found 

Where cashless wine (whose years no mind might 
know) 
Flash'd amethyst and ruby glances round, 

Held by its age-formed crust from outward flow. 

So in the past man's outward-reaching thought 

Hath fashioned systems oft to serve his needs : 
In creedal cellarets hath earnest sought 

The wine of moral worth, though cashed in creeds. 
Each met some human want in partial sense, 

None fed the all — none gained the final meed : 
Each through this fact (whene'er deduced or whence) 

But prophet was of that which shall succeed ! 

All souls in being's twilight track the vale 

Where Time's swift river seeks th' eternal sea ; 

Some dogma-laden walk with steps that fail. 

Some with the stride of him whom Truth makes 
free: 



40 new-year's offering. 

The cave-brewed Soma of man's earliest line 

In schemes and forms diverse has flowed for him, 

But we this Jiour may drink the spirit tvine 

Whose currents yieed no creed's supporting brim ! 

As years depart each circling land shall know 

The soulful cordial from celestial vine; 
And kindly deeds, not webs of faith, shall grow. 

And Justice lead the world with power benign : 
Till heav'n-illumined man walk hand in hand 

With beings free from dull restraining clay — 
Till Death shall die, and conquering Life expand 

Its widening, peopled, potent spheres alway ! 

Farewell the pleasant scene, the crowded hall, 

Farewell the sights and sounds of friendly mirth ; 
Years as they speed the bolts of change let fall. 

And migrant dust must strew the cooling earth : 
Crowd on the sail ! for golden turrets line 

The nearing shore : though varying seas we roam, 
Mid adverse tides, though sun or lightning shine. 

The spirit's course is laid for Heaven and Home. 



THE FOREST SPRING. 41 



THE FOREST SPRING. 



The forest holds within its temple grand, 
Full many an altar to the Father's praise ; 

But holiest is the placid fountain — fanned 
By zephyrSj as they breathe ^^olian lays 

To the low-drooping branches ; up it wells, 

Through earth's deep caves and strata to the day — 

As the true soul beneath life's bondage swells. 
And upward mounts, though errors dark display, 
To where the Eternal Sun sheds forth his glorious 
ray! 

Oh, wondrous stream,^ tradition gives thy tide 

A silent influence, that follows him 
Who tastes it, through his earthly wanderings wide. 

Till back it leads him to thy mossy rim ; 
To muse on days and hours long passed away 

To the dim regions of the far-off lands — 
And in a goblet of thy flashing spray 

Remember those who from the angel bands 

Look forth with anxious gaze to count life's waning 
sands ! 

Solemn communion ! Christ 'mid Salem's towers. 
In ancient days, poured forth memorial wine ! 



42 new-year's offering. t 



Here Nature, through the gorgeous summer hours, 
Sends up this offering from her inmost shrine ! 

" Drink, and revere thy great Creator, thou 
Who standest here, rapt in a beauteous dream — 

For as the dawning light gems morning's brow, 
His mercies ever through the darkness gleam, 
And light the sloping vale where rolls the ^ Bridge- 
less Stream ! ' '^ 

At morn I lingered by thy crystal wave, 

When thrilled the forest-warbler's matin hymn; 

And comrades true the gladsome chorus gave, 

And pledged their friendship at thy sparkling brim ! 

Years passed — I drank 'neath twilight's pall of 
grief — 
For day was fading at thy mystic shrine — 

And heard the cold wind sweep the falling leaf ; 
Still further stretched the forest's shadowy line. 
Till evening's vestal star shone o'er the somber pine ! 

So youth with gladness tastes life's current bright. 
While friends and joys crowd round in thick array — 

So manhood drains the second-childhood's blight, 
And fear's wild host their frowning ranks display ! 

But as the star-rays glimmered o'er thy breast 
When day's last sunbeams faded in their pride. 

So faith shall light the spirit to its rest. 

Onward, to Avhere the glittering worlds divide, 
And golden watch-fires gleam o'er Jordan's rolling 
tide ! 



ONWAKD. 43 



ONWARD. 



Oh ye who watch the morning light 

By faith through frowning centuries grow; 
Ye warders on the wintry height 

Whence error's downward glaciers go : 
Earth's history, like a warrior's bjeast, 

Clov'n with the stripes upon ye laid, 
Bears ouAvard to its final rest 

The cicatrix of storm and shade ! 

The tyrant's arm in vengeance mailed, 

The swift scythed-chariot speeding fast, 
The scaffold's gory stroke, hath failed 

To crush ye in the dark'ling past ! 
Though fields be heaped with freedom's dead. 

And stakes gleam red with martyr pain. 
On lands obscure God's rays are shed — 

Ye rise to guardian life again ! 

The spirit moves — from age to age 

Still brighter streams the conquering sign; 

The bigot's power, the hireling's rage, 
Check not the dayspring's march divine ! 



44 new-year's offering. 

As hours their tireless orbit roll. 

And night and day to earth are given, 

A change diurnal waits the soul — 
From night of life to dawn of heaven ! 

It calls — the Voice Eternal calls ! 

Each age, through man-made shadows dim 
Creeps further toward th' horizon walls 

And lifts an answ'ring cry to Him. 
One day shall justice crown the van, 

And race with race shall brethren be ; 
And 'franchised human sight shall span 

Our rolling globe from sea to sea ! 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE. 45 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE. — Nov. 9-10. 



"And . . . Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for 
thee before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I 
pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. . . . 

' ' And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, that 
behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and 
parted them both asunder ; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind 
into heaven. . . . 

"And . . . Elisha took up the mantle of Elijah that fell 
from him, and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan. ' ' — 
2 Kings a. 9, 11, 13. 

The sky with midniglit horror glows, 

The bayonets glare below ; 
And tramping down each furnace street 

The frenzied thousands go. 
Wild peal the bells in 'larum loud, 

The shrieking engines call ; 
The ladder's crackling length is bowed 

Beneath each crashing wall ! 

Proud manhood rears his helmet crest 

With purpose firm and high ; 
Straight in the yawning jaws of death 

The spouting torrents fly ! 



46 new-year's offering. 

Mark, how yon sheeted lightning-burst 

Leaps to the vault afar ! 
Hark to the muffled answer hoarse — 

The powder's earthquake jar ! 

Woe for our city's queenly pride ; 

Her fair and regal crov/n 
Sweeps like a blazing comet shaft 

From Hope's horizon down. 
Morn sees her lintel, roof and tower 

In ruin prostrate lie, 
As Arctic berg, o'erbalanced, reels 

In thunder down the sky. 

Above that blazing holocaust 

Our Baxxer ensign streamed ; 
Sphered in that blazing chariot's arms, 

Its parting radiance gleamed. 
The toil of years, the hope of souls 

Whelmed in its ashes, all — 
But from the crisping heavens we saw 

Its smoke-white mantle fall ! ^"^ 

Stout hands that fallen flag had borne, 

And faced the bigot's scorn ; 
Stern eyes Avith prescient light had glowed 

To greet the rising morn ! 
And angels since that gloomy hour 

Have stayed their weight of care, 
And raised The Baxter's folds once more 

To Freedom's native air ! 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE. 47 

Oh white flag, dropped from blood red sky, 

We hail thee as a sign : 
Though earth with hate and strife be dark, 

Yet shall the morn star shine, 
When Peace and Love, twin seers, shall stand 

Death's Jordan billows by ; 
And, sunlike, o'er each waking land 

Truth's chariot roll on high ! 



48 new-year's offering. 



''THE ART preservative; 



As mountain cliff that upward soars 

From valley'd spring to frosty rime, 
Till round its crest tlie whirlwind roars 

With in-sped surge from space sublime, 
So, o'er the mass some minds aspire 

With tireless impulse stern and high, 
Till round them heaves thought's lightning fire. 

And cheering plaudits thunder by. 

And such, great Franklin, was thy cast — 

Like bold Wachuset towering strong ; 
'Mid toil and humble comrades pass'd, 

Thine iron morn-wheels ground along ; 
Thy manhood raised a brazen targe 

To fence Columbia's smitten brow ; 
Fame's silver crowned life's yielded charge — 

Heaven's golden age is round thee now ! 

Our " quoins " to-night " in forests grew 
Where Eight was soil and Truth was tree, 

Whereon, down-streaming from the blue, 
God shot the rays of Liberty ! 



49 



By logic's " mallet " tightly driven, 

With " shooting-stick " of mental steel, 

They compass where true hearts have striven — 
From birth's dark "press " to '^Land o' Leal! " 

Our " quadrats '^ mark the resting-place 

By toiling generations won 
Along earth's rolling " turtle " face, 

As hour-shades cast by dialed sun. 
Benevolence — " head-rule " — we greet ; 

Our '' take " full oft, the fleeting breath 
When raised the nation's " tympan-sheet," 

And war's black " rollers " clang in death ! 

The tales of old Phoenicia known. 

The wondrous myths of far Cathay, 
The gleams from Coptic ruins thrown, 

Th' Assyrian's arrow-pointed lay, 
Tell of strange arts, man's willing thralls, 

Lost in Tradition's less'ning flame ! 
What power shall breach Oblivion's walls, 

And give their spectres form and name ? 

The Art Preservative, we sing, 

Whose magic Time and Death defies. 
No more shall learning's living spring 

Be darkly hid from human eyes. 
From ev'ry power man's toil doth gain, 

In student cell, or workshop din. 
Our Art Promethean weaves a chain 

To lead the full-orbed centuries in ! 



50 new-year's offering. 

What though with quick and nervous hand 

We lay the " form " for life supreme, 
Or at Death's " distribution '' stand 

Like half-dazed actors in a dream ? 
Life's "fountain," brimmed with "ink drops " red. 

Shall in a little " space " run dry, 
And Aiden's crystal morning spread 

Through each grimed oflEice-window high. 

Toil, brothers, for our work, more bless'd 

Than throned king's or statesman's art. 
Bids Eeason, waked by Learning's zest, 

Pierce every sham, and read the heart. 
And as the morning stars began 

Creation's round and bar-less lay, 
Earth, sometime, crowned by G-od-like man, 

Shall smiling greet a broader day ! 

Oh Press ! God's beacon light to cheer 

While storm-winds rocked a trembling world, 
Shine, till we reach the golden year. 

And Error's midnight wings be furled ; 
Till Peace come down, an angel guest. 

And heaven peal out the morning chime, 
And Sin and Care and Death shall rest 

Within the close-barr'd grave of Time ! 



"WHEN MY SHIP GETS IN FROM SEA." 51 

WHEN MY SHIP GETS IN FROM SEA." 

— "And poured round all 
Old ocean's gray and melanclioly waste." 

Where a headland breasts the fury 

Of the wild Atlantic wave — 
'Neath whose depths in thund'rous midnight 

Manhood oft has found a grave — 
Stands an ancient rock, moss-crested, 

And this tale it tells to me : 
" All your fond desires I'll answer 

When my ship gets in from sea I " 

'Twas a father's voice that uttered — 

Childhood's quickening ear that heard j 
Seaward many a pennon fluttered, 

Seaward sped the soaring bird. 
And the watcher's youthful vision 

Peered across the shining lea 
Filled with dreams of joys elysian, 

When that ship should come from sea. 

But across the far-off billows 

Never swept her landward sail, 
Though he watched, when tumbling surges 

Bowed before the roaring gale — 



52 new-year's offering. 

Or when sunset's blazing banner 
Waved o'er evening's western wall, 

Or the distant light-house glimmered 
In the spectral twilight's fall ! 

'Twas a dream of boyish fancy, 

Smiling spoke, and smiling heard ; 
But a strange and forceful meaning 

Lurks within each passing word : 
Down from yonder vault eternal, 

Soul, thy Father speaks to thee : 
^' All thy fond desires I'll answer. 

When my ship gets in from sea." 

Father, God ! on life's wild headland 

Still I watch thy coming sail ; 
Yearn to see her fair white pennon 

Streaming lordly o'er the gale : 
For along her crowded bulwarks 

Friends of old shall smile on me — 
Death shall claim a thankful spirit 

When Thy " ship gets in from sea.'^ 



THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 63 



THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 



Oh ! wondrous path, o'erarched by centuries gray, 

Through, which 'mid creedal sands and shadows lorn 
The human soul has held its toilsome way 

To modern light, from life's primordial morn ! 
What woeful tales each circling age hath told, 

What hearts grown dim 'mid trial's d^ad'ning round, 
Outreaching sadly for the " Age of Gold," 

"Which kings and prophets sought, but never 
found ! " 

And we who see beyond earth's mighty brow 

The golden effluence of Heaven's morning rise — 
Let us give thanks, while fading errors bow, 

And Truth walks regnant through the waking skies : 
And as we steadfast stand this golden hour, 

Where Thought's clear heavens with beck'ning 
splendors glow, 
List ye a legend of the star-world's power 

As type of Keason's evolution slow : 

Who walks the winding vale at close of even. 
When skies are clear, and twilight breezes blow, 

May see adown the violet cope of heaven, 
The fringe-like constellations trailing low ; 



54 new-year's offering. 

Born of tlie flaming Sun, whose leaven supreme 
Burns in all life to human senses known, 

Their glittering bands in argent union dream 
When night reveals our system's solar zone. 

Each filled its place ere yet a human eye 

Look'd anxious up from earth's fire-matrix'd plain; 
And one by one as years of toil went by, 

Men spied these wonders of the heavenly main, 
And gave them names, and piecemeal sought each 
cause 

Which ruled with mystic power their time and tide; 
Till Science gave coordinated laws 

Through stylus, telescope, and thought allied. 

Each planisphere's deflected orb foretold 

A potent neighbor hid from mortal ken, 
And thus earth's the'ries in the ages old 

Outbroadened 'neath the toil of earnest men 
Who held dull Matter's pris'ning confines naught, 

But God-like trod the empyrean vast, 
A-ud, gradual, wrought a path for human thought 

From earth to far Uranus — deemed the last : ^^ 

The link that closed our solar system's chain ; 

But still th' astronomers disturbance found. 
And wrought each careful codex o'er in vain 

Till Neptune's disc their seeming triumph crowned ; 
Then metes and bounds conclusive they ordained, 

And held the utmost of our system reached, 



THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 55 

Nothing beyond the new-found orb remained, 

They taught, whose word not lightly is impeached. 

But years roll by ; and students of the skies 

With computations keen, and centered thought, 
Begin the startling fact to recognize 

That Neptune's self hath not conclusion wrought ; 
And some with zeal and steadfast faith declare 

A huge twin planet, not yet seen, doth roll 
In vast ellipse through dim, tenebrous air — 

Neptune th' objective — this the potent pole.^^ 

Thus from the mistiest eras of the past. 

On through the nineteenth century's prismic arch, 
The human soul hath tracked Truth's precepts vast, 

While Apprehension dawned along the march. 
Each step attained hath told a greater near ; 

Each woe o'erspent a greater gladness borne ; 
Each storm of trial made th' horizon clear ; 

Each partial truth dissolved in broader dawn. 

Years fled, and in His name of Galilee, 

(Like Heavenly Neptune) from Judean hills 
Streamed forth at last a system claimed to be 

The closing luord our Heavenly Father wills ! 
Earth speaks to-day in million-tongued reply; 

It hath not brought the boon the spirit craves : 
The bigot rules — Christ's love and mercy fly 

Like storm-swept birds along its wrathful waves. 



56 new-year's offering. 

'Twas hailed at first by glad proplietic souls, 

Whose earnest '' wish was father to the thought/' 
As " final gift from Him whose power controls 

Th' advance of mind; whose will is aye out wrought." 
They sensed the spirit-planet then, but gave 

Mistaken credence to th' objective /orm; 
But on the Perihelion's circling wave 

That planet now returns with pulses warm. 

Fair Science waits till coming years reveal 

The potent orb so boldly prophesied : 
And thinking minds no longer may conceal 

In creed's domain the world-awakening wide — 
The sense prophetic of an opening way 

That leads from faith to soulful actions done ; 
The Churchman's Neptune dim with errors gray, 

Shrinks from the Spirit World's millennial sun ! 

The telescope, which yet shall glad our eyes 

With coming glories in the sphere of soul, 
Is formed of medial sayings, trite and wise, 

From those who've passed from Death to Life's 
control ; 
It gives a mental prophecy to man. 

Whereby the future of earth's moral state 
Is outlined clear to all who dare to scan 

Its lens, unawed by sneer of bigot's hate. 

We stand on Being's glory-lighted hills ! . 
The cloudy banners of the Xight are riven ! 



THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 57 

Our hearts the volt of Eeason clearer thrills, 
We sense the noontide from a nearing Heaven. 

May He whose presence burns in worm and sun 
Guide all our thoughts 'neath duty's peerless ken, 

Till time shall see full Comprehension won. 
And 'carnate angels walk the earth with men ! 



58 new-year's offering. 



MORNING BY THE SEA. 



I've seen the midnight's eastern star grow dim, 

When daylight paled above the black-browed land, 
While briny wavelets poured their matin hymn, 

And bowed in prayer along the shining sand. 
The day rolled upward. Cove and fort and town 

Gleamed like a landscape from some fairer world ; 
And round the beetling summits, old and brown, 

The dewy freshness of the morning curled. 

The ocean gleamed a quaint mosaic floor. 

Where golden tile and sapphire matrix vied : 
And free winds trod this temple, as of yore 

The high priest walked old Sol'ma's hall of pride. 
The lazy smoke climbed up o'er streets and spires. 

The sound of man's brisk toiling went abroad. 
As Heaven's bright angel lit the vestal fires. 

And cried, " Another day is born of God ! " 

So, when life's clouds and darkening trials end, 
Shall fadeless youth in golden dawn arise. 

And grateful joy its holy anthem blend 

With welcoming: chant from saints in Paradise ; 



MORNING BY THE SEA. 59 

And being's aim shall stand at last full told ; 

Nor time nor change the pulsing heart shall chill ; 
But scathless from the mortal vistas roll'd 

Each soul its deathless purpose shall fulfill ! 



60 new-year's offering. 



LADY FRANKLIN. 



Oh, the human spirit naught can chain — 

Nor time, nor tide, nor the lowering sky ; 
As the fire-god gives the lightning rein, 

Its steeds through the golden life-sands fly ; 
It hath fearless wrought mid the battle's rage 

On the rocking ^^lain, and the sounding sea, 
But the noblest deeds on its storied page 

Each age hath graven sweet Love for thee ! 

Where the floe-fields march with their leaders bold 

'Neath the red Aurora's guidon high ! 
The twin barks ^* steered for the midnight cold. 

And the years in silence pass'd them by. 
And few were the tales from that charnel land. 

Though England marshaled her barks from far — 
And the clear, wild gales of the Northland fann'd 

The folds of Columbia's banner'd star ! 

And hope grew dead in the nation's heart. 

And all ceased at length from the fruitless toil. 

Save the noble lady who bore her part 

With a dauntless purpose no ill might foil. 

And all that her power might win she gave, 
Till swift, to her tear-gemmed vision dim, 



LADY FRANKLIN. 61 

A lone bark skimmed o'er the seething wave, 

With her white wings spread for the Norland grim ! 

And the months crept on — but she came at last ! 

And bore the tidings of saddening pain — 
Of a chief inurned, ere the march was past, 

Of the barks that crashed in the iceberg's strain ; 
Of the braves who trod on their journey dread, 

With hunger and woe for their comrades nigh — 
Of the lonely boat and her sleeping dead, 

Watched ten long years by the pole-star's eye ! 

Oh, man's spirit longs for the truth sublime, 

And the sage and the stoic boldly strive, 
And up through the gathering darkness climb, 

Where the splintered crags through the future drive. 
Oh Science ! thy votaries wide and free 

Ma.rch in th' Eternal's conq'ring name, 
And the desert sand, or the wintry sea. 

May never its kindling glories tame ! 

But, Woman ! thou — like the legend ark 

By sage upreared in a primal world, 
That safely rode o'er the waters dark. 

Though no oar she bent, nor a sail unfurled — 
Thou spring'st aloft on the flood of woe. 

Though low thou liest in joy's sunlight fair, 
And bearest thy treasures from below 

In the holy arms of a loving prayer ! 



62 new-year's offering. 

We steer tlirougli a cold and midnight way, 

To the magnet-home of our Father's smile — 
And the death-ice clutches our mortal clay, 

And it crumbles in silent dust the while ! 
But the soul shall vault from its bark forlorn, 

Where the Dayspring's vanward pennons wave, 
And wild, at the gates of Endless Morn, 

Life's ocean thunders its crashing stave I 



AUTOPHONIA. 63 



AUTOPHONIA. 



Up from the land where somber darkness dwells, 

Comes a wild stream, and through the fair earth's 
bound, 
By marshy fen, and cliff-girt valley swells. 

Till back to darkness flows the fearful round ; 
Hearse-like above it, droop the vapors dank, 

No sunrays glitter on the pulseless wave. 
The marching star-worlds break their glittering rank. 

And tremble where its quenching waters lave, 
While Luna's white, cold eye, glares on their liquid 
grave. 

And scaly forms loom through that gloomy tide. 

Or lift their huge heads from its leaden breast ! 
Whence came they, none can tell — nor confines wide 

Of sea, or land, or sky, may give them rest ! 
They slowly drift back to the parent hold, 

W^here baffled ills, and broken life-clouds fly, 
Hope's name can chill them like the Greenland cold, 

And bid them swift to murkier blackness hie — 
But Hope that looks on them shall darkly wailing die ! 



64 new-year's offering. 

With wan, weird forms crouched o'er each bending 
sweep, 

Dim, spectral barks along the waters go. 
Deep with their load, that brings undreaming sleep — 

The drug, the steel, the cord " that shortens woe." 
The helmsmen glare along the sloping land. 

Till some pale, mortal, wildered in the mist 
Hung blankly round him, calls the grisly band ; 

Sends the lone soul to wander where it list, 
And holds with dark decay a never-ending tryst ! 

That flood is self-destruction I through the earth, 

By life's bright wave it rolls, a curdling stream ; 
But life in heaven-lit hills received its birth — 

This in wild caverns where the demons dream ; 
Life flows 'mid fields and sunny-girdled isles — 

This by the jungle weeds, the poisoned flower, 
And he, who, trembling in its misty wiles 

Peers round him, sees by noon or midnight hour 
The strange, fantastic shapes, wrought by desponding 
power ! 

Alas ! that sorrow brooding o'er the mind 

Should hurl proud reason from its firm-built throne ; 

Or stern ambition, grasping at the wind 

And finding naught should scorn its power o'er- 
thrown. 

And soar away to brave the future's gloom ! 
Each has a cross, a weary load, to bear. 

As downward tread we to the shrouding tomb ! 



AUTOPHONIA. 65 

Heaven help us all to cleave the tempting snare, 
And in the land on high the crown of victory wear ! 

Yes ! let us live till all our work be done, 

And 'mid the shadows of the grave-land vast, 
His hand for us veils out the glowing sun 

Who bade its glory gild our transient past ! 
Then shall the soul spread forth her tireless wing, 

While earth along her dusty orbit jars, 
And to the w^aiting angels raptured spring — 

As, when beyond their cloudy prison bars, 
The free lights of the north shoot up among the stars ! 



6Q NEW-YEAR^S OFFERING. 



HOPE. 



Oh glorious morning ! o'er the pilgrim's way 

Thou stream'st puissant from the hills afar — 
A. reflex of that broad and glorious day 

Where risen, triumphant souls in glory are ! 

Thy mounting beams 'round Reason's colder star 
Throw warmest light — Fruition's golden flame ; 

Life's crowding clouds, perchance, may briefly mar 
Thy conquering course, but Death presents no claim 
To stay thy rising tide, which erst from Aiden came ! 

Thou shin'st forever ; 'mid the Springtide's glow — 

The warm, rich gales of Summer's ripening hours — 
The wild, weird winds of Autumn, when they blow 

Chanting a requiem through earth's gloomy bowers. 

Thy light immortal streams from heavenly towers 
Across the tide ; but mortal eyes are dim — 

We call it night when life's fair, fragrant flowers 
Fade from our sight beyond earth's cloudy rim. 
And all our cherished joys in Grief's black deluge 
swim ! 

But still thou shin'st ; thy light shall pierce the gloom 

.When we are drawn to our Emanuel nigh, 
Anll^'all the lesson learned, the heart finds room 



HOPE. 67 

For humble, patient trust in God on high. 

Our Brother spake 'neath a Juclean sky 
The words that oped the blind one's faded sight; 

So each dark trial opes the spirit's eye, 
And gleams, a Christ, amid celestial light. 
When from our rayless orbs is swept the doubting 
night. 

Oh Father God ! thou art the same to all — 
The martyr, or the wand'rer from thy face ! 

Thou bidd'st by Law the fruits of labor fall 
To each as Nature's recompensing grace 
Beholds the needed gift. Oh may our race. 

In coming years, with hope and love be crowned ; 
Light thou the weary path we dark'ling trace, 

And o'er our spirits pour that calm profound 

Befitting deathless souls to thy great bosom bound ! 



NOTES. 



1 In a conversation held some years before his decease witli 
Father John Beeson, the Indian's life-long friend (to whose 
memory this poem is respectfully dedicated), the writer of these 
lines was put in possession of several interesting facts concern- 
ing the " Senecas " — one of the original " Six Nations " of the 
North American continent. The tribe is now divided, a portion, 
some twelve hundred strong, still residing on the Cattaraugus 
reservation, in New York State. The other branch was located 
on a reservation in the Indian Territory at the time specified, 
and the ceremony herein described was one taking place among 
them every year, the spot chosen for its celebration being as 
secluded as possible from all presence of the whites (although 
Mr. Beeson was privileged to attend it on one occasion). A 
white dog without spot or blemish is chosen, highly adorned 
with ribbons, beads, paint, etc. , and strangled, in a temporarily 
reared Council Lodge, which has three openings in the roof, and 
upon the floor of which burn three fires. Singing, shouting, 
dancing, and the beating of drams are included in the services. 
The dog hangs till the third day, and then is thrown, whole, 
into the flames and consumed, the priests (hideously painted 
and ornamented) and the chiefs joining in the ceremony, by 
throwing upon the fires sweet, fragrant mosses, tobacco, etc., 
which they have brought in baskets, and jointly exclaiming, 
" As the smoke of our offering ascends to the sky, so may our 
thanks [mentioning thanks severally and specially for all the 
blessings of sunshine, rain, food, etc.] go up to thee, oh Great 
Spirit." At the conclusion the baskets themselves are thrown 



NOTES. 69 

into the fire, and the prayer continues : " And now, Great Spirit, 
we offer ourselves to thee : make us faithful to eacli other, and 
may we be true Indians till we meet here again ! " 

It was explained to Mr. Beeson that the dog was selected 
because it represented the higher qualities of man, — courage 
in defense of his master, faitlifulness to his call, and swiftness 
for duty ; it was strangled so that, being spotless white in life, 
it might go up to the Great Spirit without the blemish of broken 
bone or flowing blood ; the dancing was instituted because 
"the Great Spirit knew it was necessary for his children" to 
move about and feel free in his presence. 

2 See Chapter XIV., "Proof Palpable of Immortality," by 
Epes Sargent, Esq. 

3 These lines are inscribed to Joseph Jolin's superb painting 
of the spirit Indian maiden Springflower. '' The circumstances 
which led to and followed the course of the preparation of this 
picture were remarkable. The artist was able to see his subject 
with clairvoyant vision, and thus had the advantage of the 
actual model to match with the power of his cultured ideality in 
the production of the work. 

Springflower, who demonstrated herself from the first occa- 
sion of her control to be a lively and intelligent spirit, attached 
herself to the late Mrs. J. H. Conant (the first medium of the 
Banner of Light Public Free Circles) as an attendant, in the 
earliest days of her mediumship, and proved to be a most useful 
and beneficial companion. The account given of her mortal 
experiences stated, among other things, that she was of the 
Sioux tribe, and that she was known among the Indians by a 
name which signifies " The-one-who-shows-herself," as she was 
frequently seen, as a spirit, near the spot where she met her 
death. To give any extended sketch of her operations as a 
spirit attendant at the public circles and private sittings given 
by Mrs. Conant, would be only to recite a record of faithful 
devotion and unwavering kindness, but at the same time would 
be only a repetition of experiences which the media of the 



70 new-year's offering. 

modern phenomena have met with and described, in some 
measure, and therefore it will not be attempted. The public 
is respectfully invited, freely, to call at the Banner of Light 
bookstore, and view this fine work of art, which has been pro- 
nounced by Mrs. Conant and several other clairvoyants, who 
have (by their gift) seen the spirit, to be a striking likeness of 
the Indian maiden. 

4 It is recorded that at the close of one of the lost fields 
fought for the Magyar independence, an Austrian officer was 
horror-stricken at recognizing in a dying soldier of the patriot 
forces the face of a lovely Hungarian lady to whom, before the 
war, he had been deeply attached ; she had met death at the 
hands of his comrades (perhaps his own) as a willing sacrifice 
for her country. 

5 Suggested at seeing a party of emigrants hurrying through 
Boston on their way to the West. 

6 The attention of the writer was first called to this ' ' saber- 
cut of Saxon speech " by his listening to the narrative of " Heze- 
kiah," a good Orthodox deacon in a New England village 
bordering on the Merrimac, who, being financially ruined by 
Madison's embargo, immediately preceding the war of 1812, 
used to change the order of the syllables and spelling, making 
the word "0-grra6-Vm." 

■^ Written for an'd delivered during the course of the union 
services held at Tremont Temple, Boston, March 31st, 1887, in 
commemoration of the 39th anniversary of the advent of Mod- 
ern Spiritualism. 

8 "Such a charming collection I have never seen, and the 
tuns glitter like the purest gold." 

" Truly?" smiled his mysterious guide ; " the reason of it is 
because the wine has formed its own casks ; those which were 
made by men are long ago decayed. But 'tis not enough to look 
at them ; we must taste, and then you must tell me if you have 
ever found a wine like mine." — Legends of the Rhine. 

9 In a forest, near the village of Annisquam, on the northern 



NOTES. 71 

shore of Cape Ann, Mass., is a bubbling- spring, of which 
tradition asserts that he who drinks of its waters will surely 
return to it once more ! 

10 This poem sets forth an actual occurrence in The Banner's 
history at the time of the great fire in Boston, Nov. 9-10, 1872. 
At the moment when the fire made its appearance upon the roof 
of the Parker Building, in which the Banner of Light Establish- 
ment was situated, the hitense heat caused the flag- staff directly 
over the office to give forth a white cloud of smoke, which was 
borne out by the wind in the form of a flag, occupying nearly 
the whole length of the staff. It bore a resemblance to a white 
field streaked horizontally with blue. It continued in plain 
sight till the flag- staff crumbled and fell. 

11 This poem was wiitten for the Franklin Typographical 
Society of Boston, on its 50th anniversary, celebrated on the 
evening of Jan. 17th, 1874. 

12 Uranus was discovered ; and the theories of the seven 
planets were, ere long, presented to astronomy by the untiring 
genius of Laplace. ... In the attempt to construct tables 
which should serve' for the prediction of the places of the 
planets, it was ascertained that the irregularities of motion of 
the new outer planet still required the intervention of some 
unseen power. Two great geometers, independently of each 
other, computed the elements of a planet which should recon- 
cile the discrepancies. They coincided in its orbit and position. 
In the very direction predicted by them the planet Neptune was 
found. — Prof, Pierce before the Lowell Institute, Boston. 

13 But the observed planet is quite distinct in orbit and the- 
ory from that which was predicted ; and the theory of predic- 
tion throws no light upon the actual theory, nor has it any but 
an accidental connection with it. . . . To the present case I 
have given a critical and laborious investigation. . . . My posi- 
tion is that there were two possible planets ; either of which 
might have caused the observed irregularities in the motion of 
Uranus. Each planet excluded the other. They coincided in 



72 



direction from the earth at certain epochs, once in six hundred 
and fifty years. It was at one of tliese epochs that the predic- 
tion was made ; and at no otlier time for six centuries would 
the prediction of one planet have revealed the other. The ob- 
served planet was not the predicted one. . . . The potential 
planet is as splendid a reality as the true planet, and as marvel- 
ous a discovery. — Id. 

1* The fate which overtook Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin 
and his ships has been forcibly recalled to the mind of the 
present generation by a revelation of secret history connected 
with the disaster. The Erebus and Terror were last seen in the 
Arctic regions in July, 1845; but it was not till 1859 — after 
the English nation had utterly abandoned (after many expedi- 
tions) the hope of finding traces of them — that their fate was 
clearly determined by a little vessel, courageously fitted out by 
Lady Franklin herself. Rev. J. H. Skewes (Vicar of the Holy 
Trinity, Liverpool, Eng.), recently published a work in which 
he stoutly avers that the success of the concluding search- 
expedition was due to an occult revelation, given in the form of 
a spirit- drawing to a family in Londonderry, with the outlines 
and locations of which rough cartograph Lady Franklin and 
the captain were made acquainted by a party who believed the 
sketch to be reliable. 




